IT'S easy to be confused by this government. We are told to eat our greens, quit smoking and drink moderately, all of which is sound if unexciting advice.

We are urged not to smack our children, which is fine by me; but then, in the next breath, we are told to support a bloody war. Are we expected to be for violence or against it?

Now the government, led by a political party historically at home in the Methodist church halls, where drinking and gambling were demons to be slayed, wants to throw open the gambling dens.

It's as if Reverend Tony did a quick spin on his heels and turned into Croupier Tony. The earnest frown is gone, the downcast mouth has disappeared. Instead, Tony has a dazzling smile and his eyes have turned into roulette wheels. Go on, try your luck. Watch where the bouncing ball ends up. Roll those dice. Pump that one-armed bandit. Pick up those cards. Back that horse, bung a tenner on that dog. It's all right - Rev Tony is looking the other way.

When people say that Tony Blair is two-faced, this is generally construed as an insult. Yet sometimes the way he shows two faces to the world does not entirely suggest someone who says one thing and does another. It's not that he tells fibs exactly (apart from that one about the weapons of mass destruction), more that he wants to please everyone at the same time.

This is where Two-Tone Tony comes in. This new political toy combines different aspects of the prime minister's character. It comes supplied with assorted faces, for example Reverend Tony and Croupier Tony. Spin this toy round and see which Tony you get. Either one will be just as convincing as the other.

While Reverend Tony is telling us to save more money for our old age, and tut-tutting about our small pension pots, Croupier Tony backs a new Gambling Bill that will usher in American-style mega-casinos.

It is easy to become baffled by all these mixed messages. Are we to save our money or blow it at the casino? Perhaps we are meant to do both; but, human nature being what it is, the casino may seem more alluring.

Not that I've ever succumbed to that allure. The nearest I've been to a casino is watching CSI on TV. Betting is a bit of a mystery to me, apart from a weekly fool's pound on the lottery. Still, perhaps my luck is changing. Any day now I am expecting a cheque from Readers' Digest for £250,000, having been strung out over the past months through a seemingly endless series of letters. How you work for your money, filling in this, tearing off that. Still, it'll be worth it when that cheque comes and I'm sure the postman will find somewhere to park his pink elephant in our street.

The Government says its Bill will regulate socially responsible gambling. I hate to agree with the Daily Mail, which is running a Kill The Casino Bill campaign, but this is nonsense. It's hard how to see how the huge US-owned casinos expected to spring up in cities around the country are likely to be responsible. The only reason big corporations want to open casinos is to part fools from their money.

So why is the Government suddenly converted to gambling, which many have found to be an addiction and a route to misery? Reverend Tony sighs and says gambling happens and needs to be regulated; Croupier Tony rubs his hands and thinks of all the money to be creamed off in taxes.

Incidentally, before the Gambling Act of 1968, brought in by an earlier Labour government, York, like many other cities, had its casinos and gambling clubs. These included what is now the Clifton Bingo Club, where a casino was introduced in the mid Sixties. It was housed upstairs at the club in a room which doubled as a ballroom, where the walls were decorated with prints of naked women.

The new Barbican Centre, still a cause of much heated discussion, was originally going to feature a casino, although later plans shelved the idea. Don't be surprised, however, if the roulette wheel spins back into town sometime or other.

Updated: 09:23 Thursday, October 21, 2004